Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Building Approvals show that the number of dwellings approved have fallen in the first 3 months of 2013, in trend terms, following a period of growth throughout 2012. In March they declined by a further 1.2 per cent on February.

Dwelling approvals decreased in March in New South Wales (-3.7 per cent), Victoria (-3.6 per cent) and Tasmania (-3.5 per cent) but increased in Queensland (2.4 per cent), Western Australia (0.7 per cent) and South Australia (0.2 per cent) in trend terms.

Dwelling approval trends have been rising for over a year in Western Australia (14 months) while falling for the last year (12 months) in Tasmania.

In trend terms, approvals for private sector houses rose 0.2 per cent in March, having been essentially stable since September last year. Private sector house approvals rose in Western Australia (2.3 per cent) and New South Wales (0.6 per cent). In New South Wales the trend has been rising since March last year (12 months). Private sector house approvals trends fell in Victoria (-0.9 per cent), South Australia (-0.7 per cent) and Queensland (-0.7 per cent). Only Queensland has maintained a fall over the last year (13 months).

The trend value of total building approved rose modestly (0.1 per cent) in March and has now risen for 14 months. The value of residential building fell 2.4 per cent while non-residential building rose 3.6 per cent.

This media release focuses on movements in the trend as seasonally adjusted month to month movements can be highly volatile and are not necessarily indicative of the underlying strength in approvals data.

Further information is available in Building Approvals, Australia (cat no. 8731.0) on the ABS website at www.abs.gov.au

Media Note: Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.